Chair of the Department of Behavioral Sciences

Education

PhD
,
Experimental Psychology

Millikin University, a Presbyterian school in Decatur with 2,380 students, said in a statement that the school expects James St. James, 61, to keep teaching at Millikin this fall.

The school said it "has only recently been made aware of Dr. St. James' past.
Given the traumatic experiences of his childhood, Dr. St. James' efforts to rebuild his life and obtain a successful professional career have been remarkable."

St. James, originally James Wolcott, spent six years in a mental institution after the killings but emerged to start a new life, changing his name and getting master's and doctoral degrees in psychology, according to the Georgetown Advocate newspaper.

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St. James could not be reached for comment Friday.

The news sent a shock wave through Decatur, with city council member Jerry J. Dawson, a former Macon County sheriff, saying that St. James should have told the school about his past before joining the faculty.

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In its statement, the university said that St. James had over 27 years "taught a variety of courses at Millikin, served in various leadership roles and built a successful academic career, receiving academic awards including the 1997 Teaching Excellence and Leadership Award."

Upon learning the startling and disturbing news that award-winning Professor James St. James, the head of their Department of Behavioral Sciences at Millikin University in Illinois, gunned down his entire family as a teenager and spent years in a mental institution, the University has refused to take action against the professor.St. James was found not guilty of his crimes by reason of insanity and later changed his name after being released from psychiatric care.
The revelations about his criminal past came to light only last month.

James St. James (author of the student textbooks accompanying the MEL Lab and PsychMate® software) has authored this textbook to serve as the main resource for your research methods class.

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James D. St. James is Chair of the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, where he has taught since 1986.He received his PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1988.He is coauthor of PsychMate® and its predecessor, MEL Lab.
His current area of research involves detection of validity of effort in human motor performance testing.
He teaches introductory psychology and advanced courses in statistics and research methods at Milikin University.

A story last week in a Texas newspaper, the Georgetown Advocate, identified Millikin University professor James St. James as the person who in 1967 fatally shot his father, mother and teenage sister in the family's home.

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St. James went on to earn a doctorate in psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, according to his biography on the Millikin website.He joined the faculty in 1986 and later became a department chair at the private college with about 2,380 students.

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"Given the traumatic experiences of his childhood, Dr. St. James' efforts to rebuild his life and obtain a successful professional career have been remarkable," the statement said.
"The university expects Dr. St. James to teach at Millikin this fall."

St. James answered the phone at his home Thursday afternoon but declined to comment beyond saying that he planned to return to work.

Millikin University, a Presbyterian school in Decatur with 2,380 students, said in a statement that the school expects James St. James, 61, to keep teaching at Millikin this fall.

The school said it "has only recently been made aware of Dr. St. James' past.
Given the traumatic experiences of his childhood, Dr. St. James' efforts to rebuild his life and obtain a successful professional career have been remarkable."

St. James, originally James Wolcott, spent six years in a mental institution after the killings but emerged to start a new life, changing his name and getting master's and doctoral degrees in psychology, according to the Georgetown Advocate newspaper.

...

St. James could not be reached for comment Friday.

The news sent a shock wave through Decatur, with City Council member Jerry J. Dawson, a former Macon County sheriff, saying that St. James should have told the school about his past before joining the faculty.

...

In its statement, the university said that St. James had over 27 years "taught a variety of courses at Millikin, served in various leadership roles and built a successful academic career, receiving academic awards including the 1997 Teaching Excellence and Leadership Award."